Last week I had a moan on facebook about how I thought we were supposed to be in the 'Fabulous 4's' with Friday, and a whole bunch of mum friends commented that sadly I seem to have been misled.
Apparently it is in fact the 'F*cking 4's' we find ourselves in the middle of right now.
Which does seem to make a lot more sense ...
We are having a bit of a tricky time with Friday, and it is disrupting family life somewhat. She's moody and uncooperative, prone to sulks and huge sobbing fits over ... nothing. She's not taking instruction well at all and has developed a hard and defiant little facial expression which instantly makes my palm tingle with an almost uncontrollable urge to unite the two.
Those in the know say kids experience a hormonal surge at this age not unlike those that come with the teenage years, and if you scan the list above I could very well be describing a 14 year old right? Joy.
I think all of her behaviour is rooted in one thing, an admittedly very teenage thing too: she's just loving the sound of her own voice.
She doesn't hear us when we tell her to eat her supper because she's too busy talking to herself inside her head.
Or just too busy talking.
She'll lie sobbing on her bed for 30 minutes because she's quite intrigued by the sounds she's making.
She'll scream at me for the same reason.
She'll argue just to try out her voice and see how much influence she can wield with it.
She barks instructions for the same reason.
She shouts at her sister, she squeals in the bathroom, she 'sings' as loudly as she can so as not to hear us.
She basically cannot stop talking, through the good chats and the bad spats, and I think it wears her out.
I'm a little averse to all this talk of the Terrible 2's, then the F*ck You 3's, and now the F*cking 4's. They feel like handles with which to explain away a whole lot of (trying but normal) growing up behaviour. And they fall into that old trap of focusing on the negative, never a healthy way to view the world.
Growing up is hard, I still feel like I'm struggling with it everyday. But I'm resolved, on this one, to remember that I'm more grown-up than her, I'm the Mum, and just like my long-suffering mother did for me, I'll try and muster the creativity and patience to deal with this.
And possibly invest in some earplugs.
Oh no! The fear! My Jonny is two, she is an absolute horror, I am terrified of my own spawn. I have bruises, cuts from her nails on my face and arms, when she lifts her arms to flail I flinch. When we are in the bath together I flinch every time she lifts a cup to pour water, I think she is going to bash me in the face with it. When I lie next to her in her bed my body cant relax as I am ready for a biffing. 2 year olds are strong and I feel like I am in an abusive relationship. But then she does things like say "come here mommy" and wraps those little arms around me and I forget, briefly.
ReplyDeleteOmg I hear you on the abusive relationship issue. Sometimes I marvel that I'd never let anyone else in the world treat me this badly - physically (Sunday's a fightah!) or emotionally.
ReplyDeleteI seriously hope they have kids one day, I'll happily wait 30 years as long as ONE DAY they get how much we put up with!
Oh, and in reverse Baby Voldermort, she's been so much better since I wrote this post - yay!